Jewish Learning in English – SPRING 2017

English Lecture Series in Jewish Studies

at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies (behind the Israel Museum)

Eight lectures per series

Discounts for early registration or for more than one series

Philosophies of Jewish Prayer: The Quest for Meaning

with Dr. Elliott Malamet, cofounder of Torah in Motion. He lectures in literature at the Hebrew University and in Jewish Thought at Yeshivat Machanaim.

In this course we will analyse the philosophies of prayer articulated by seminal Jewish thinkers, including Maimonides; Rosenzweig; Buber; Heschel; Soloveitchik; Leibowitz; Kook and Ross. We will explore the theology of prayer–can we influence God? Does God respond to prayer?—as well as examine questions about public vs. private prayer; gendered prayer language, and whether prayer can inspire spirituality. Ultimately, we will try to understand the role of prayer in the overall picture of Jewish meaning.

Revisiting Genesis

with Esther Lapian, a teacher and teacher educator in the field of Bible studies and the pedagogy of teaching Jewish texts, in Israel and abroad.

It has been said that Book of Breishit contains the genetic code of the entire Tanach. In order to “crack that code,” to discover and uncover hidden ideas, motifs, and signals that are woven into the narratives, we need to reread Genesis narratives – as adults. Reading as adults means we can read both “inside,”-closely, carefully – as well as “outside”- intertextually – tracing themes and ideas from Breishit that appear and reappear in other books of the Bible. We will touch on familiar narratives, but we will reread them differently.

Creation, Revelation and Redemption

with Dr. Shula Laderman, a senior lecturer in Judaism and the Arts at the Schechter Institute. She is the author of Images of Cosmology in Jewish and Byzantine Art- God’s Blueprint of Creation and co-author with Avner Moriah of The Illuminated Torah.

In this course we will explore the topics of Creation, Revelation, and Redemption as visualized in art. We will examine paintings and other works of art depicting Biblical stories that deal with these concepts, and analyze the direct and indirect connections between God and man/woman in all three spheres.

Judaism and Evolution: Can the two walk together?

with Rabbi Dr. Paul Shrell-Fox, a lecturer and Academic Adviser at the Schechter Institute. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.

This course will explore the evolution of religious practice in general and of Jewish religious practice in particular, and how a biological mass can create a framework of moral life. We will try to understand the evolutionary influences that helped shape Jewish religious practice, reading classic religious texts from the Bible and Talmud to see how social evolution is expressed in our traditional biblical and rabbinic literature. We will confront the apparent contradictions the phenomena of religion and science present to one another.

with Dr. Shana Rosenblatt Mauer, lecturer at Herzog College. Her research and teaching focus on topics in Modern Jewish Literature, particularly transgressive Holocaust narratives and the work of Russian-American Jewish writers.

The two most celebrated Yiddish writers of the 20th century, arguably, were Singer and Grade. We will consider how the panoramas these writers created of Jewish ‘worlds’ in Europe and New York correspond to realities and myths of Jewish life before and after WW II and how the writings of both of them are inflected with cynicism and nostalgia – to varying degrees. In addition, we will address the translating, publishing and cultural feuds that influenced how each of these writers was promoted, received, praised and, at different junctures, overlooked.